A public good model with lotteries in large groups

We analyze the effect of a large group on a public goods model with lotteries. We show that as populations get large, and with preferences in which people only care about their private consumptions and the total supply of the public good, the level of contributions converges to the one given by voluntary contributions. With altruistic preferences of the warm-glow type, the contributions converge to a level strictly higher than those given by voluntary contributions, but in general they do not yield first-best levels. Our results are important to clarify why in general governments do not rely on lotteries for a large part of the revenue creation for public good provision. They are also useful to understand why lottery proceeds are earmarked to worthy causes, where warm glow is likely to be larger

Trustors' disregard for trustees deciding quickly or slowly in three experiments with time constraints

Many decisions in the economic and social domain are made under time constraints, be it under time pressure or forced delay. Requiring individuals to decide quickly or slowly often elicit different responses. Time pressure has been associated with inefficiency in market settings and market regulation often requires individuals to delay their decisions via cooling-off periods. Yet, recent research suggests that people who make reflective decisions are met with distrust. If this extends to external time constraints, then forcing individuals to delay their decisions may be counterproductive in scenarios where trust considerations are important, such as in market and organizational design. In three Trust Game experiments (total number of participants = 1872), including within- and between subjects designs, we test whether individuals trust (more) someone who is forced to respond quickly (intuitively) or slowly (reflectively). We find that trustors do not adjust their behavior (or their beliefs) to the trustee’s time conditions. This seems to be an appropriate response because time constraints do not affect trustees’ behavior, at least when the game decisions are binary (trust vs. don’t trust; reciprocate vs. don’t reciprocate) and therefore mistakes cannot explain choices. Thus, delayed decisions per se do not seem to elicit distust

Robots, labor markets, and universal basic income

Automation is a big concern in modern societies in view of its widespread impact on many socioeconomic issues including income, jobs, and productivity. While previous studies have concentrated on determining the effects on jobs and salaries, our aim is to understand how automation affects productivity, and how some policies, such as taxes on robots or universal basic income, moderate or aggravate those effects. To this end, we have designed an experiment where workers make productive effort decisions, and managers can choose between workers and robots to do these tasks. In our baseline treatment, we measure the effort made by workers who may be replaced by robots, and also elicit firm replacement decisions. Subsequently, we carry out treatments in which workers have a universal basic income of about a fifth of the workers’ median wages, or where there is a tax levy on firms who replace workers by robots. We complete the picture of the impact of automation by looking into the coexistence of workers and robots with part-time jobs. We find that the threat of a robot substitution does not affect the amount of effort exerted by workers. Also, neither universal basic income nor a tax on robots decrease workers’ effort. We observe that the robot substitution tax reduces the probability of worker substitution. Finally, workers that benefit from managerial decisions to not substitute them by more productive robots do not increase their effort level. Our conclusions shed light on the interplay of policy and workers behavior under pervasive automation

Robots, labor markets, and universal basic income

Automation is a big concern in modern societies in view of its widespread impact on many socioeconomic issues including income, jobs, and productivity. While previous studies have concentrated on determining the effects on jobs and salaries, our aim is to understand how automation affects productivity, and how some policies, such as taxes on robots or universal basic income, moderate or aggravate those effects. To this end, we have designed an experiment where workers make productive effort decisions, and managers can choose between workers and robots to do these tasks. In our baseline treatment, we measure the effort made by workers who may be replaced by robots, and also elicit firm replacement decisions. Subsequently, we carry out treatments in which workers have a universal basic income of about a fifth of the workers’ median wages, or where there is a tax levy on firms who replace workers by robots. We complete the picture of the impact of automation by looking into the coexistence of workers and robots with part-time jobs. We find that the threat of a robot substitution does not affect the amount of effort exerted by workers. Also, neither universal basic income nor a tax on robots decrease workers’ effort. We observe that the robot substitution tax reduces the probability of worker substitution. Finally, workers that benefit from managerial decisions to not substitute them by more productive robots do not increase their effort level. Our conclusions shed light on the interplay of policy and workers behavior under pervasive automation

Brief report: RRx-001 is a c-Myc inhibitor that targets cancer stem cells.

The goal of anticancer therapy is to selectively eradicate all malignant cells. Unfortunately for the majority of patients with metastatic disease, this goal is consistently thwarted by the nearly inevitable development of therapeutic resistance; the main driver of therapeutic resistance is a minority subpopulation of cancer cells called cancer stem cells (CSCs) whose mitotic quiescence essentially renders them non-eradicable. The Wnt signaling pathway has been widely implicated as a regulator of CSCs and, therefore, its inhibition is thought to result in a reversal of therapeutic resistance via loss of stem cell properties. RRx-001 is a minimally toxic redox-active epi-immunotherapeutic anticancer agent in Phase III clinical trials that sensitizes tumors to radiation and cytotoxic chemotherapies. In this article, as a potential mechanism for its radio- and chemosensitizing activity, we report that RRx-001 targets CD133 + /CD44 + cancer stem cells from three colon cancer cell-lines, HT-29, Caco-2, and HCT116, and inhibits Wnt pathway signalling with downregulation of c-Myc

Dual employment protection and (lack of) on-the-job training: PIAAC evidence for Spain and other European countries

Using micro data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), we first document how having a temporary contract in Spain is associated to lower levels of on-the-job training (OJT). Next, we find that this OJT gap is positively correlated with gaps in the literacy and numeracy scores achieved by these two types of workers in the PIAAC study. Although we choose Spain as a case study of a dual labor market, we also provide cross-country evidence showing that OJT gaps are lower in those European labor markets where dualism is less entrenched than in those where it is more extended

Partial response to carboplatin in an RRx-001 pretreated patient with EGFR-inhibitor-resistance and T790M-negative NSCLC.

Few therapeutic options are available for T790M-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after failure of primary epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) and chemotherapy. This report presents the case of a 71-year-old Asian female never smoker with EGFR mutated T790M negative non squamous cell lung cancer (NSCLC) pre-treated with the experimental epi-immunotherapeutic agent, RRx-001, that re-responded to single agent carboplatin after failure of platinum doublets, TKIs, pemetrexed and nivolumab. The management of advanced EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC is briefly reviewed herein and the emerging paradigm of episensitization, which contradicts the long-standing and widely accepted tenet about the immutability of resistance and the futility of therapeutic rechallenge, is introduced as a strategy to avert treatment failure and thereby stave off deterioration and death

Partial Response in an RRx-001-Primed Patient with Refractory Small-Cell Lung Cancer after a Third Introduction of Platinum Doublets.

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), initially exquisitely sensitive to first-line cisplatin/etoposide, invariably relapses and acquires a multidrug chemoresistant phenotype that generally renders retreatment with first-line therapy both futile and counterproductive. This report presents the case of a 77-year-old Caucasian male with extensive-stage refractory SCLC who was restarted on platinum doublets as part of a clinical trial called TRIPLE THREAT (NCT02489903) involving pretreatment with the epi-immunotherapeutic agent RRx-001, and who achieved a partial response after only 4 cycles. The patient had received a platinum drug twice before, in 2009 for a diagnosis of non-small-cell lung cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) and in 2015 for SCLC, suggesting that RRx-001 pretreatment may sensitize or resensitize refractory SCLC patients to first-line chemotherapy

Replacing the Transfusion of 1-2 Units of Blood with Plasma Expanders that Increase Oxygen Delivery Capacity: Evidence from Experimental Studies.

At least a third of the blood supply in the world is used to transfuse 1-2 units of packed red blood cells for each intervention and most clinical trials of blood substitutes have been carried out at this level of oxygen carrying capacity (OCC) restoration. However, the increase of oxygenation achieved is marginal or none at all for molecular hemoglobin (Hb) products, due to their lingering vasoactivity. This has provided the impetus for the development of "oxygen therapeutics" using Hb-based molecules that have high oxygen affinity and target delivery of oxygen to anoxic areas. However it is still unclear how these oxygen carriers counteract or mitigate the functional effects of anemia due to obstruction, vasoconstriction and under-perfusion. Indeed, they are administered as a low dosage/low volume therapeutic Hb (subsequently further diluted in the circulatory pool) and hence induce extremely small OCC changes. Hyperviscous plasma expanders provide an alternative to oxygen therapeutics by increasing the oxygen delivery capacity (ODC); in anemia they induce supra-perfusion and increase tissue perfusion (flow) by as much as 50%. Polyethylene glycol conjugate albumin (PEG-Alb) accomplishes this by enhancing the shear thinning behavior of diluted blood, which increases microvascular endothelial shear stress, causes vasodilation and lowering peripheral vascular resistance thus facilitating cardiac function. Induction of supra-perfusion takes advantage of the fact that ODC is the product of OCC and blood flow and hence can be maintained by increasing either or both. Animal studies suggest that this approach may save a considerable fraction of the blood supply. It has an additional benefit of enhancing tissue clearance of toxic metabolites